Blog Archives - Nicola Foreman Quilts

Block Party Pieced Together

15/7/2019

On Saturday I attended another workshop - this time on Foundation Paper Piecing, held at KIS Quilting Ltd in Ipswich. I had tried this technique before, but the tutor, Helen Butcher, showed us her way of doing this which ensured there was much less wastage of fabric. She demonstrated it really well, and I was so pleased with my blocks. My foundation pieced blocks have now all been stitched together! This pattern is "Block Party" designed by Helen Butcher. I absolutely LOVE it - now to get it quilted!
If you want to try one of Helen's designs, and can't attend one of her workshops, her patterns are available to purchase from her website Little Patch Pockets, either in paper form, or as a PDF download. She has several designs to choose from!

FPP Workshop

14/7/2019

And so the workshops continue! I attended a fabulous foundation paper pieced workshop yesterday at Kis Quilting Ltd in Ipswich - taught by a brilliant tutor Helen Butcher. The pattern we used is Helen's design called Block Party, and has a great 3D optical illusioon to it. All 42 of my blocks have now been pressed and trimmed ready for assembly.
If you want to try this design and can't get to one of Helen's workshops, her pattern is available to purchase online from her website Little Patch Pockets as either a paper copy or a PDF download.

Dream Catcher Workshop

12/7/2019

Oh my goodness I have been well and truely pushed out of my comfort zone! On Monday I attended a workshop over at Elm Farm Studio in Essex with my friend Linda - the guest tutor was Vendulka Battais from OliVen, and were doing a Dream Catcher workshop. Prior to the workshop we prepared our background fabric - I used this VERY bright orange and pink batik - and quilted it very simply, so that on the day we could start straight away with free motion quilting feathers and making feathers with organza. I had such an amazing day!...

...we also learnt how to weave the perle thread onto a covered hoop, which wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be! This has been hand stitched into place on the background piece. The feathers were going to be embelished with Marabu fabric paints, and I decided the more bling the better!! Beads were also added to the perle thread that the feathers were hanging from. Linda gave me a few beads that she'd brought back from a trip to India, and they were perfect for this project...

...a double row of piping was used as once again I couldn't decide which colour to use so used them both! Then a wide binding was added to frame it - unfortunately I didn't have any of the background fabric left to use for binding, so chose a darker shade of orange batik. A narrow quilt sleeve has been hand stitched to the back, and now it's all ready now to hang on the wall of my sewing studio. I really am thrilled with this wall hanging! Vendulka bought some beautiful samples of her dream catchers along to show us and they really looked amazing - have a look at her FB page and Instagram page if you want to see them too. She will be at Festival of Quilts this year, and I'm really looking forward to seeing her stall there.

Mandala Workshop

11/7/2019

I'm absolutely thrilled to bits with my latest project! On Tuesday I attended a "Mandala" workshop with Vendulka Battais from OliVen. Vendulka was teaching as a guest tutor over at Elm Farm Studio, and I had been lucky enough to get a place for 2 days (Monday's project is very much a work in progress so it may be a few days before that's completed). I needed a piece of "plainish" fabric for the front, and hadn't got anything except batiks, so rummaged around and found this one which I thought was really ugly and wouldn't be used for anything else - and I'm amazed how it's been transformed! The Mandala was quilted using a variegated quilting thread, then decorated using Marabu fabric paints. This was so much fun! This morning I've embellished it with a few sequins - and added a double row of piping. Vendulka is such an inspirational tutor, I shall definitely go to more of her workshops, and her shop OliVen is about an hours drive from where I live so will definitely visit there. Now I just need to add a quilt sleeve on the back and it will be all ready to display in my sewing studio!
*If you can't get to a workshop with Vendulka, there are kits available on the OliVen for the Mandala wall hangings these include a full sized (A3) pattern, written instructions, fabric for the front, piping and binding and 4 tubes of Marabu fabric paint.

*These are the tubes of Marabu fabric paints that I used for decorating my Mandela piece - the results are amazing and they're really easy to use. The full range of colours is available from OliVen - loving the "bling" this has added to my project!

A Snapshot of Wales

10/7/2019

We've been on our holibobs to Wales and had an amazing time! Here's just a snapshot of some of the places we've visited and the adventures we've had. We were blessed with glorious weather, and spent the whole week not needing to wear jumpers or coats! We stayed in a super cottage called Rose Cottage on the outskirts of Haverfordwest, and it really was very comfortable. It was so lovely I could've quite happily stayed for another week! This is definitely NOT our last trip to Wales, there was just so much to see and do that we'll definitely go back there again, and would quite happily stay in the same cottage!

Rose Cottage

8/7/2019

We've recently returned home from a lovely holiday in Wales - we stayed in Rose Cottage which was situated on the outskirts of Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire. The cottage was superb, and we felt really at home - it was very hard to leave when the holiday was over! The location was great, and we were just a short drive from the spectacular scenery of the stunning Pembrokeshire coastline. We'll definitely be going back to Wales and would happily stay in the same cottage again.

Winning Tickets

7/7/2019

*Winning tickets* Here are the names of the 5 people who have won a pair of tickets for the The Festival of Quilts 2019. As stated in the original post, this was open to anyone who commented on my FB page, Instagram or my blog. And those 5 lucky people are as follows:
1. Sally Ryan (commented on my blog)
2. Youmeandmabel (commented on Instagram)
3. Sewjustinesew (commented on Instagram)
4. Sandra Anderson (commented on FB)
5. Alison Jane Plummer (commented on FB)
Please can the winners message me their addresses as the tickets will be sent to direct from FOQ and can be used on any of the 4 days of the show. Hope you enjoy your day out - there will be so much to see and do!

A Visit to The Shed

4/7/2019

As you know, my favourite online shop is Cross Patch, and I'd been sent a special invitation to visit Julia, the owner, and to see inside her amazing "shed"! I'm on my holibobs in Wales, and Julia was just an hour away from where we're staying so Mr F left me with Julia for the afternoon and went exploring with Alice, while I spent the aftnoon oohhing ahhing over all those goodies...

...as you can see, Julia's "shed" is bursting with all sorts of delights and it was like being in fabric-heaven! Julia does the most amazing kits, and has so many lovely things to choose from on her website - it's really lovely and I always manage to find temptation when I'm browsing her online shop! Julia also took me to visit the Woollen Mill that's near her too so I'll share some pics of that later.